Functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity analyses reveal efference-copy to primary somatosensory area, BA2.

ABSTRACT: Some theories of motor control suggest efference-copies of motor commands reach somatosensory cortices. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test these models. We varied the amount of efference-copy signal by making participants squeeze a soft material either actively or passively. We found electromyographical recordings, an efference-copy proxy, to predict activity in primary somatosensory regions, in particular Brodmann Area (BA) 2. Partial correlation analyses confirmed that brain activity in cortical structures associated with motor control (premotor and supplementary motor cortices, the parietal area PF and the cerebellum) predicts brain activity in BA2 without being entirely mediated by activity in early somatosensory (BA3b) cortex. Our study therefore provides valua

SUBMITTER: Cui F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3885571 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature